The Impact

We help communities help themselves by training, equipping,and supporting their own passion to thrive.

Our model promotes dignity by providing men the opportunity to work.It offers women options and the freedom to hope and nurture their children.It gives children their health and an opportunity for education.It gives communities back to themselves.

Meet Nestor.

A 4th-generation Togolese welder and machinist manufacturing critical partsfor the Water4 pumps that bring clean water to his country.

Three Ingredients

1. Train

A vital part of sustainability is putting the solution in the hands of the people.

Traditional aid has poured well-intentioned charity into communities, inadvertently creating a cycle of dependency. Water4 provides hands-on training to local men and women. We teach them how to manually drill water wells, install hand pumps, repair existing pumps, and rehabilitate non-functioning wells.

Difficult terrain and lack of roads makes it impossible for mechanized drilling rigs to reach many rural villages. Water4 uses hand tools that can be packed for easy transport to even the most remote areas of the world.

2. Equip

Empowering people with the solution to their own needs is the best way to make lasting change.

Water4 equips the drill teams we train with the tools they need to start their own well-drilling business. We think of this equipment as start-up capital. By the time natural wear and tear takes its toll on the equipment, the drill teams have earned enough income to invest in tool repair and replacement, and to grow their businesses.

Training drill teams to equip communities with multiple wells is also central to our strategy. Not only does this reduce the time women and children spend walking and waiting for water, it also results in less wear and tear on the pumps, so they can serve the communities longer before needing repair.

3. Support

Solving the world’s leading humanitarian crisis requires ongoing community support.

It demands that we continually listen and learn from our in-country partners to help us refine our strategy at the community level. It requires continued research and development, the flexibility to adapt to cultural norms, and a willingness to provide technology that can grow with the community. So that a hand pump may eventually give way to a solar pump, and eventually to cisterns that hold pumped water, much like our water towers.

Another part of our ongoing community support comes in the form of a certification process where active drill teams can perform a series of tests and become officially Water4 certified. This helps ensure that communities benefit from consistently reliable wells and pumps.